I want to modify a file and then change the file's timestamp back to what it was before the modification. It should look as if the file has'nt been modifed. The entire operation needs to be done inside a ksh script. Can anyone suggest how I can trap a file's stamp in a variable within a shell.

Thanks for the response. I used touch -t several times. What I wanted to know is, how to trap the timestamp of the file within a shell in a format which can be fed to "touch" command. I want to get the file's timestamp in YYYYMMDDHHMI format.

Sounds like someone is trying to do something fishy "file should appear as if it has not been modified" . Anyways, I have a question about the modification time for a symbolic link.

foo.c -> apps/gendev/src/foo.c

the timestamp on apps/gendev/src/foo.c is say 'May 27 11:37'

the timestamp on foo.c (which points to the source file) is 'May 27 10:42' which is when the link was created. Everytime I edit foo.c from my directory the timestamp on apps/gendev/src/foo.c is updated which I understand because I am really modifying that file. I want to know if there is a way to modify the timestamp on the link without relinking the file?